The Houston Chronicle revealed this week that based on 6,600 rape kits from the 1980s to today, there are 850 hits in the FBI’s nationwide database of DNA profiles, marking a major step in the city’s $6 million effort to address the backlog, officials announced Monday. There are 29 new charges against sexual predators filed because of the backlog. The kits hadn’t been look at since 2013 and were finally used for investigation purposes when a $4.4 million funded lab was approved for the kits to be processed in.

It’s a delayed, but an imperative step forward in finding and arresting the correct individuals perpetuating sexual assaults and rapes, though officials have admitted some hazy areas. Due to lost time, some of the kits are roughly thirty-years old. Out of the 29 cases, six are allegedly rapists since their genetic coding was already in the index for other crimes.